The new version of ABBYYÆs form processing solution is easy to install and use. It does not require the services of an external IT-consultant. Now a high quality form processing solution is affordable even for a small company.

Moscow, October 01, 2001 -  ABBYY Software House, a leader in document recognition and linguistic technologies, today announces the availability of ABBYY FormReader 4.1 (previously called ABBYY FineReader Handprint Forms) a high quality form processing solution. This universal solution enables the user to input a wide variety of forms quickly and easily. The customer can begin processing the forms within a few hours of purchasing ABBYY FormReader. ABBYY FormReader 4.1 is easy to install and cost-effective. The customer does not need to purchase the services of an external IT-consultant.

ABBYY FormReader is a powerful tool for automatic data input from paper forms, which can be filled out by hand, a typewriter or any printer, into information management systems and databases. 

The ABBYY FormReader application is based upon the recognition and image processing technologies implemented in ABBYY FineReader. It recognizes handprint (ICR), machine print (OCR), check marks (OMR), and barcodes (OBR) from a variety of paper forms, including: 

• Purchase order forms
• Registration cards
• Application forms
• Coupons
• Questionnaires
• Examination papers
• Multiple choice papers
• Accounting reports
• Statistical documents
• Voting ballots
• Opinion polls
• Lottery tickets
• Medical cards
• Tax return forms
• as well as many others. 

ABBYY FormReader is ten times faster than a professional typist, achieving amazing accuracy (making a maximum of 5* errors over 1000 symbols) without requiring fine-tuning for hand-printed characters. It allows the users to input high volumes of pages per day, and includes a reliable system of automatic field validation to avoid having to proofread most forms after recognition.

This system is already used by many international organizations and companies, including the Ministry of Defence (South Africa), Van Beijnum (Holland), Colaroid Informatique (France), Russian Ministry of Taxes and Duties, and others.

GUIDE TO CREATING FORM TEMPLATES

ABBYY FormReader is delivered complete with detailed instructions, tips&tricks on how to create machine-readable forms in MS Visio 2000 and MS Word 2000. This documentation is easy to read and to understand even to a non-specialist. ABBYY is sharing itsÆ knowledge of the forms processing industry with itsÆ customers as not all of them are able to afford expensive consulting.

"At ABBYY we see the future of the Form Processing market as one of boxed
products, and not heavy projects costing tens or hundreds of thousands of
Euros. ABBYY's aim is to bring automated form processing into the reach
of all small companies, hotels, banks, education, supermarkets and health
clinics next door, not just for huge corporations. ABBYY FormReader 4.1 gives the customer an efficient, easy and inexpensive solution to meet the commercial needs of today." - said Jupp Stoepetie, CEO of ABBYY Europe.- "ABBYY FormReader 4.1 is the first step to achieving this goal."

DAILY INPUT OF HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF FORMS

Processing forms filled-in by hand involves the following steps: scanning, recognition, verification and export.

Scanning

• ADF or flatbed scanners may be used
• Files in TIFF, JPG, PCX, DCX, PNG, and BMP format may be opened &read
• Automatic threshold detection, image rotation, page orientation detection, deskewing and despeckling û all these functions are used during scanning.

Recognition

- Images are processed by modern OCR, ICR, OMR and barcode recognition technologies. 

- All elements usually found on forms are successfully recognized:

• text printed on a printer or a typewriter 
• letters and digits written by hand
• different types of checkmarks and radio groups
• different types of barcodes.

- Automatic template matching enables the user to process different forms in 
the same batch. Multipage forms may also be processed 

- Data reliability is further enhanced by integrating internal and external
dictionaries

Verification 

Three verification modes are available:

• Context verification for checking text fields
• Group verification for checking digits at a speed of up to 300 characters per second
• Verification in form for checking simple forms and correcting validation rule errors
• Built-in automatic validation rules (i.e. checks can be made against a dictionary, checks sum in figures against sum in words and many others) reduce the possibility of errors in the final data even further.

Export

• to files in DBF, Excel, CSV, and TXT formats
• to databases via ODBC
• to any information management system via API and any programming language that supports OLE-Automation
• form field images û i.e. photos, signatures, stamps, pictures etc. û into databases

PRICING AND AVAILABILITY 

A demo version of ABBYY FormReader can be obtained by contacting your local ABBYY office. The product is available immediately and priced at 1 600 USD including VAT (1.850,00 EURO excluding VAT). The software runs under Windows ME, Windows 98, Windows 95 as well as Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4.0 (SP3).

For further information, please visit www.abbyy.com or contact ABBYY Software House on office@abbyy.com.

* when the form contains no corrections and is filled in accurately

About ABBYY 

ABBYY Software House is a world leader in document recognition and linguistic technologies. ABBYY specializes in the development of software for Optical Character Recognition (OCR), Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR), linguistics, semantics, and electronic lexicography. Leading products from ABBYY include the FineReader line of OCR, ICR and OMR software, and FineReader development tools. Companies that license ABBYY OCR/ICR technologies include SER Systems AG, Siemens Nixdorf, Samsung Electronics, C Technologies, Sumitomo Electric Systems, L&H/Kurzweil, Arkenstone, Banctec, Visionshape, Acer, Compaq, Microtek, OTG Software, Grantsmart, Lexmark, Mustek, Umax, NewSoft, Primax and Jet Fax. For more information about ABBYY, visit www.abbyy.com 

ABBYY and FineReader names and logos are registered trademarks of ABBYY Software House. Other product names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies and are hereby recognized. 

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